The Hindu : National : ``U.S. plotting to kill me''

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Sunday, Mar 06, 2005

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National

``U.S. plotting to kill me''

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI, MARCH 5. "If anything happens to me, the person responsible will be the President of the United States," the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, declared at a press conference today.

Mr. Chavez said the U.S. Government was plotting to assassinate him, but he was praying to God that this attempt would fail like the previous ones. Referring to the coup d'etat of April 2002 against his Government, he said this was similar to the overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973.

In direct language, the President accused the U.S. Government of trying to oust his Government for the last three years, stressing that this was an affront to the dignity of the Venezuelan people. Asked what measures his Government was taking to protect its sovereignty and independence, Mr. Chavez replied, "What measures can be taken by David against Goliath?"

According to him, the measures taken were to raise the awareness of the Venezuelan people against American designs. Even his seven-year-old daughter had cautioned him against "gringos" when he told her about meeting with American oil company representatives in Caracas. "Be careful, papa," Mr. Chavez quoted his daughter as saying.

National alert

"We are not lying low; there is a national alert," the President said, adding that he could not reveal all the measures that his Government was taking for fear of information leaking out.

Mr. Chavez was a man in command at his press conference. He had a virtual interactive session — asking varied questions from the Indian Ambassador to Venezuela, Deepak Bhojwani, who was sitting in at the conference — about the price of cars in India and the location of Rajasthan.

He was scathing about the "lies" that the U.S. Government had told about "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq. Stating repeatedly that he had nothing against the American people, Mr. Chavez said about their Government: "They have lied to the world; they don't care."

He compared the U.S. "lies on Iraq" to a man with lipstick on his face, who chose to tell his wife that he had been playing with a clown. It was like a child or a drunken man telling untruths.

Mr. Chavez said he had been even compared to a flute player, who attracted "rats". But, the President said, his following of "rats" was increasing; even in India.

Referring to the huge turnout at his Jawaharlal Nehru University meeting on Friday, Mr. Chavez said he had been informed that 20,000 people were waiting to listen to him in Kolkata.

`Close to communists'

Asked why he was a "communist" at a time when communism had failed and capitalism had triumphed, he said the "victory" of capitalism was like saying it was midnight at 3.20 p.m. in the afternoon in New Delhi.

"I'm very close to the communists. Fidel Castro is like a brother to me. I am an ally of the communists, but I am not a communist. That is not my training. I am a patriot, I am a nationalist ... "

Pointing out that he was an admirer of Nasser and Nehru, Mr. Chavez said he had read Karl Marx and admired his work. The President said he was not against private property, but this had to be subordinated to national interests.

He quoted Nehru in support of "revisiting" production relations and ended with an impassioned appeal for a reinvented and redefined socialism for the world as a whole. "Socialism is the way ahead ... "

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